Real men do not use instructions. So it is ironic that Chris Wares book about a failure of man contains a complete set. The most interesting part of these general instructions is the Ease of Use section, for one reason because this book is anything but easy to use, and this section makes no attempts at making it any easier at first glance. Upon close examination of the Ease of use section however a lot of important ideas are packed into this short section. The Ease of Use section gives many clues about the purpose of the book and how to get through it for the superman dream sequence will illustrate this.
First and foremost the ease of use section clearly points out that the book has been “carefully arranged and skillfully decorated”. This could of course be casually glanced over as an author being full of himself, but really its Wares way of saying everything is in its place for a reason. Several points throughout the novel there are subtle things that he added or excluded that one could overlook but are necessary to understand the breathe of the novel. In the superman sequence it is the absence of something important that’s very hard to stop. Superman just lifted a house and sent it sputtering back to earth, in the middle of what is clearly a crowded down, and no one came outside to help. There are lights on but no ones home. Ware could have easily added a crowd but chose not to enhance the loneliness and utter despair of the scene.
The next major section of the Ease of Use instructions explains how the book can be used as a “convincing simulation of life” in a number of unpleasant situations. Ware names places like waiting rooms, bus rides, and breaks at work, places where normal people would maybe take a second out of their day to escape the real world, but Ware never mentions escaping. He very specifically says a “convincing simulation of life”, perhaps he is taking a second to comment on how miserable peoples lives actually are if he considers Jimmy a realistic simulation of life. Another reason Ware uses this phrasing is most likely how Jimmy’s fantasy “escapes” are really just ways of interpreting his terrible life. Once again examining the superman sequence using the Ease of Use section, it becomes much more then a really messed up dream. It can be interpreted that Superman symbolizes Jimmy’s dad, or even fatherhood in general, and as a result of him shrinking or failing Jimmy’s son is broken and Jimmy himself has to finish him off. So in Jimmy’s subconscious because his dad left him Jimmy’s own hopes of being a successful father are dashed. Looking at it is this way the reader gets a much deeper understanding of the dream sequence and through it the mind of Jimmy and it’s a dark one at that.
The Ease of Use explains one more useful piece of information; it is not so useful in explaining any sequence in particular but more the contents of the book in general. It explains why the cover of the book looks the way it does: “to prevent embarrassment, all gaudiness and indication of contents have been shrewdly left from the exterior”. Ware is making a couple of statements here. Primarily it is a graphic novel its not main stream like a book, or a magazine and should be approached as a graphic novel and not any conventional literature. Next when looking at the phrase a different way he is also offering a slight warning to the taboo content of the book, it’s dark, it covers heavy subject material, and it’s depressing, but its worth reading even though on the surface it looks like a comic. Lastly he’s offering another a clue to interpreting the novel, look deeper beyond what’s on the surface of the strip, what exactly do the aesthetics mean. Look for a deeper meaning like the mice in the superman sequence all waiting for Jimmy to deliver the final blow, where are they from? What do they mean? It requires research to find out that the mouse was from a comic strip that Ware was one of the original in the genre, and further that the mouse was an antagonistic figure that through a brick at an innocent cat, like Jimmy throwing the brick at his son. Without the Ease of Use instructions highlighting these facts the book would be infinitely more difficult then it already is, and even through real men do not use instructions for this book it fits the emasculating feeling fits.
3 comments:
In this sentence: "He very specifically says a “convincing simulation of life”, perhaps he is taking a second to comment on how miserable peoples lives actually are if he considers Jimmy a realistic simulation of life." Maybe elaborate on why reading this book is a pathetic attempt at escaping real life (maybe because Jimmy's life is likely to be more miserable than the person reading it?).
This sentence: "It can be interpreted that Superman symbolizes Jimmy’s dad, or even fatherhood in general, and as a result of him shrinking or failing Jimmy’s son is broken and Jimmy himself has to finish him off." is confusing, i feel like theres a lot of different thoughts crammed into one sentence. I would better describe the scenes in the book that you are trying to interpret.
A lot of the sentences are hard to read and I noticed quite a few grammatical errors and misplaced words, things that can be caught if you just proofread it more closely before you submit it.
My only other criticism is that since we did spend a good amount of the class interpreting that exact strip of frames, you might be able to elaborate more on the meanings of them, based on what we talked about.
Real men do not use instructions. So it is ironic that Chris Ware’s book about a failure of man contains a complete set. The most interesting part of these general instructions is the Ease of Use section, mostly because this book is anything but easy to use, and this section makes no attempt at making it any easier at first. Upon close examination of the Ease of Use section however it becomes obvious that a lot of important ideas are packed into this short section of instructions. The Ease of Use section gives many clues about the purpose of the book and how to get through it for purposes of example the superman dream sequence can illustrate this best.
First and foremost the Ease of Use section clearly points out that the book has been “carefully arranged and skillfully decorated”. This could of course be casually glanced over as an author being full of himself, but really its Ware’s way of saying everything is in its place for a reason. At several points throughout the novel there are subtle things that he added or excluded that one could overlook but are necessary to understand the breathe of the novel and what emotions Ware is trying to portray. In the superman sequence it is the absence of something important that is very hard to spot. Superman just lifted a house and sent it sputtering back to earth, in the middle of what is clearly a crowded down, and no one came outside to help. There are lights on but no ones home. Ware could have easily added a crowd but chose not to enhance the loneliness and utter despair of the scene. Without taking the time to notice this little detail one loses out on the added feeling of loneliness that goes along with the miserable feeling of the scene.
The next major section of the Ease of Use instructions explains how the book can be used as a “convincing simulation of life” in a number of unpleasant situations. Ware names places like waiting rooms, bus rides, and breaks at work, places where normal people would maybe take a second out of their day to escape the real world, but Ware never mentions escaping. He very specifically says a “convincing simulation of life”, perhaps he is taking a second to comment on how miserable peoples lives actually are if he considers Jimmy a realistic simulation of life. Look at Jimmy, he is miserable: hiding from the world, and completely incapable of dealing with life even in his fantasies, if this is a convincing simulation it is a morose one. Another reason Ware uses this phrasing is how Jimmy tends to “escape” into his dreams which are just ways of interpreting his terrible life. Once again examining the superman sequence using the Ease of Use section, it becomes much more then a really messed up dream. It is Jimmy’s way of interpreting his father’s effect on his own future. Superman symbolizes Jimmy’s dad and how he completely failed him; someone that’s supposed to be endowed with monolithic powers turns out to be completely ineffectual. As a result of him failing Jimmy is incapable of seeing his own pathetic self succeeding where his father has failed. In his mind this is portrayed as his son being completely broken and Jimmy himself has to finish him off. Not only does Jimmy see himself being a failure, but as a force of destruction. Looking at it this way the reader gets a much deeper understanding of the dream sequence and through it the mind of Jimmy and it’s not a happy place.
The Ease of Use imparts one more useful piece of information; it is not so useful in explaining any sequence in particular but more the contents of the book in general. It explains why the cover of the book looks the way it does: “to prevent embarrassment, all gaudiness and indication of contents have been shrewdly left from the exterior”. Ware is making a couple of statements here. Primarily it is a graphic novel its not main stream like a book, or a magazine and should be approached as a graphic novel and not any conventional literature. Next when looking at the phrase a different way he is also offering a slight warning to the taboo content of the book, it’s dark, it covers heavy subject material, and it’s depressing, but its worth reading even though on the surface it looks like a comic. Lastly he’s offering another a clue to interpreting the novel, look deeper beyond what’s on the surface of the strip, what exactly do the aesthetics mean. Look for a deeper meaning like the mice in the superman sequence all waiting for Jimmy to deliver the final blow, where are they from? What do they mean? It requires research to find out exactly what they mean and where they are from, and in understanding these small things enriches the overall experience of the book as a graphic novel and a story. It requires the readers to stop and consider everything Ware does, and realize that everything is important. Without the Ease of Use instructions telling readers to slow down a carefully exam the sequences the book would be infinitely more difficult then it already is, and even through real men do not use instructions this book was written about an emasculated man, so the use of the instructions fits.
Amanda - good comments, as usual, although (and not for the first time) you don't work as much with Josh's overall argument as you might have.
Josh - Many of Amanda's points still apply to this version. Your proofreading and editing is pretty bad here; like Amanda, I found some of the sentences hard to figure out, and the typos made it seem like you didn't even spellcheck it.
I was less bothered than Amanda by the fact that you were using a section of the book we'd discussed in class; from my point of view, you were mostly doing different things with it than we collectively had done.
The real weakness here, for me, is that your discussion is very unfocused. You jump freely from idea ot idea, which, combined with the poor proofreading, makes it hard to tell if you really even have a central point. Your point about instructions and emasculation is funny but not particularly well developed, and much of your other material doesn't really connect, to me, with that ostensibly central argument.
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